Recognize the Physical Signs of Stress and Learn 2 Quick Ways to Turn it Off

Not many of us think of stress as something to be appreciated,
but the truth is, stress reactions fire us up for peak performance in moments
of crisis and danger and increase our probability of survival in life and death situations.

Unfortunately, the stress reactions that make a lot of sense
when hunting (or running from!) a large animal don’t offer much of an advantage
when lineups at the DMV get your heart rate pounding or when a business meeting has you wanting to
jump up and bolt.

Uncontrolled stress does more harm than good in most modern
lives, but we still need adrenalin spikes for moments of legitimate danger. Fortunately,
if we learn a bit more about how stress works and about what’s going on in our
bodies during a stress response, we can learn to outsmart stress when
it’s not needed and minimize its negative impact on quality of life.

To beat stress we need to:

Understand stress and be able to recognize the physical
signs of a stress response

Counter or exhaust the physical processes associated with a
stress response

Do You Know What Stress Feels Like? Learn to Recognize the
Physical Signs of Stress

So you’re at the
office and a coworker’s sloppy work is putting the success of your morning
presentation in jeopardy... You start feeling some stress. You don’t know it yet, but
your body has gone into fight or flight mode and is marshaling physiological
resources to either flee or attack.

But while you may want to attack your under-performing
colleague, you probably shouldn’t or won’t – so really, you’re building up a
surplus of emergency energy that has nowhere to go.

So what’s happening and why?

Heart – Your heart rate increases, arteries constrict to
increase blood pressure and your veins expand to accelerate the return of blood
to the pump. More blood is pumped to the muscles of the extremities for quick or
powerful actions.

Lungs – Breathing simultaneously quickens and deepens as the
throat and nostrils also expand to allow for greater air flow. All to get more
oxygen into the blood traveling to the muscles.

Energy – Your liver produces sugar energy and bodily fat
stores are transformed to sugar for an energy surge in the bloodstream.

Digestive Processes – Processes involved in the digestion
and excretion of food slow or stop and less blood travels to the kidneys,
stomach and intestines. You may experience dry mouth or a need to
urinate/defecate as a result.

Sensory processes – Your senses heighten as you prepare to
run or fight. Pupils dilate to improve vision, the hairs on your skin stand
erect to improve your sense of touch and your brain releases endorphins to
improve your focus and to reduce sensations of pain.

Skin – You start sweating as a prophylactic cooling method
and your skin vessels tighten to reduce blood loss in the event of an injury1

So as your stress response builds you start sweating, your heart
pounds, your breathing intensifies and accelerates and a host of other
processes combine to make you into the fastest runner or fiercest warrior
you’re capable of being.

But that’s not much help at the office, so what are you
supposed to do when you recognize the physical signs of stress?

2 Ways to Overcome Stress – "Burn It Off" or "Soothe It Down"

Too much stress does bad things to the body and definitely
affects overall quality of life. You’ll never eliminate stress from your life,
but you can learn techniques that help you to manage stress a little better and
to reduce its impact.

Stressful times are coming, whether you like it or not – but
if you can learn to burn off or tame stress in a few minutes, instead of
letting stress affect you for hours, you greatly reduce its harmful
consequences. Two ways to accelerate your stress recovery are to:

Burn it off with vigorous activity

Tame it with conscious calming exercises

1. Burn it off – Your body’s stress response readies you for
a short burst of intense activity – so why not give your body what it’s looking
for and take 10 minutes or so to burn off some energy.

Feeling stressed at the
office? Excuse yourself for a few minutes and go for a vigorous walk around the
block. You’ll burn off some of the energy you’ve marshaled to ‘fight or flee’
and you’ll calm your mind down enough to arrest the continuation of the stress
reaction. Not a fancy solution but an easy and very effective one.

2. Tame It – Sometimes circumstances don’t allow you a brief
exercise break. In such situations when you can’t bleed off that extra energy
(like during a business meeting, for example) you might try conscious calming
exercises as a way to arrest and reverse some of the physiological changes of
the stress response.2

Stress causes accelerated respiration and heart rate. By
doing deep breathing exercises you can slow your respiration and heart
rate and by doing so you signal to your body that any danger has passed and that
it can revert to normal functioning.

Try taking a number slow deep breaths and flexing and
relaxing the muscles of your stomach and legs and arms. If you can, try
counting slowly to 5 as you inhale and again counting slowly to 5 as you
exhale.3

Helpful Reading:

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